Prelude to a Lifetime
by enaskoritsi
Summary: One hundred snapshots of Clark and Lex. Their life together, moments apart, and everything inbetween. .: Clex :.


_Disclaimer :_ I do not own Smallville, its characters, or anything associated.

_A/N : _Each word is a prompt for the sentence beneath it. None are connected besides a few, but they are easy to tell. Some follow the show's story line, some go beyond, and others are what should or could have happened.

I had a lot of fun writing these, and I hope you enjoy reading them. Please review.

And yes, I totally abused the semicolon. :)

_Side Note:_ If you like my writing and want to read more, or already do, please vote on the poll in my profile. Thank you.

**Prelude to a Lifetime**

_**Glow**_

The light of the fires caress Lex's face; Clark hates how he just watched the man destroy the world and can still think him beautiful.

_**Sleep**_

Clark holds Lex while he dreams of apathetic doctors and padded walls; his heart aches when he remembers how many invisible scars Lex feels he has to hide.

_**Perfect**_

Lex can't recall why he ever thought a Kansas farm-boy held any more virtue than a Metropolis leech.

_**Choice**_

When Lex told him to decide, their relationship or the world, Clark still wasn't prepared to return to find empty cabinets and cold sheets.

_**Sea**_

Clark's eyes are the only blue-green that Lex can see without calling back memories of screeching metal and being completely alone.

_**Numb**_

The snow and ice are freezing as they begin crashing down, but Lex doesn't feel it since his heart froze years ago.

_**Flight**_

Lex still hasn't completely conquered his fear of heights, and if he holds on just a little too tightly as they fly home, Clark doesn't mention it.

_**Invasion**_

The only threat of world domination Clark displays is that one sock that never seems to make it to the hamper.

_**Blue**_

Lex finds Clark's favorite color cynically amusing because he's never met someone so blatantly dishonest.

_**Hands**_

One large and tan, the other thin and pale, and yet they fit perfectly together

_**Rhythm**_

First the people of Smallville, then those in Metropolis; both cities watched two giants dance around each other and could only observe the world exploding when they met.

_**Okay**_

Coffee dates, night drives, games of pool; both of them wonder when it's not going to be enough.

_**Plain**_

The first time Lex answered the door in Clark's flannel, Chloe fainted dead away.

_**Moment**_

Green and blue meet for a second, and no one else notices the pause before Lex continues.

_**Jaded**_

A new Ferrari receives less than a blink, but a hug from Clark and Lex's smile lights up the room.

_**Spinning**_

Martha watches Clark leap down the stairs with only a hasty goodbye; at the squealing of tires, she wonders when he grew up and left her and Jonathan behind.

_**Empty**_

One reporter asks how it feels to be the next President of the United States; Lex catches one blank face in the crowd, and it almost comes out that he feels nothing.

_**Visitor**_

Clark can't explain the joy he feels when Lex knocks on his door for a change.

_**Jump**_

The air buffeted his face as windows blurred and the pavement reared up to meet him; Superman said nothing after dropping him at the penthouse, but Lex chuckled because Clark couldn't hide the tremor in his arms.

_**North**_

Whenever he journeyed too far into the darkness, the thought of Clark shone like a beacon, guiding him home.

_**Sins**_

Lex once said Clark had a messiah complex, but even Jesus Christ knew when he was wrong.

_**Listen**_

Clark isn't a fan of history, but he'll hear about Alexander the Great for the sixth time to watch the way Lex's eyes sparkle when he lets himself go.

_**Reflect**_

Lionel remembers the day he entered the mansion to see Lex truly happy; it was the same day he recognized his son's downfall.

_**Love**_

Lex hasn't said the words yet, but Clark knows they're there in his soft touches and unguarded smiles.

_**Blame**_

"Your trust, Clark, would have changed everything."

_**Sorrow**_

"No, it wouldn't have Lex; you'd always need more."

_**Grandiose**_

Clark takes in the aged stone, the priceless stained glass, and makes a vow to show Lex a real home someday.

_**Unspoken**_

The secrets build up like a brick wall between them, and Lex realizes that Clark thinks if they don't mention it, it isn't there.

_**Lost**_

Trying to find his way through the Luthor Castle without x-ray vision is just about impossible, but the promise of a special someone is more than enough incentive.

_**Stain**_

Clark's still a simple kid at heart, and he doesn't accept most of Lex's presents; Lex just loves the vibrant rain blush he receives when he offers.

_**Impossible**_

The people in his dorm don't understand why billionaire Lex Luthor bothers spending time with normal Clark Kent; Clark doesn't attempt to enlighten them because he has no idea how to explain soul mates.

_**Fall**_

"It's okay, Lex, I'll catch you."

_**Science**_

It's fun to watch Lex 'geek-out' in his lab, but Clark basks more in the complete absence of fear.

_**Theater**_

For so long Lex did the right thing, practiced benevolence, and was generally not the man he was meant to be; now the curtains are down, costumes are off, and it's back to the way things are.

_**Drowning**_

Lex had been flying as the black closed around him; only waking up to a beautiful face stole his breath away.

_**Melancholy**_

The amber liquid catches what remains of the light while his mind replays a tragic look of betrayal.

_**Hesitation**_

Most of Clark knows that Lex would understand and accept his secrets, be excited about them even; it's just that there's this one percent that knows there's a chance he wouldn't.

_**Race**_

He gets there half a second before the bomb goes off; afterwards, Lex holds Clark through his tears while the float above the debris.

_**Age**_

Jonathan had placed reassurance in the fact that either would tire of the other eventually, but in fact, Clark and Lex just kept growing closer together.

_**Stay**_

It hurts to note that Clark's visits have dwindled to nothing; Lex just wants to shake the boy and beg him not to pull away.

_**Passion**_

They were both those kinds of people; they either love with their entire being or hate with all they've got.

_**Burst**_

Clark wasn't sure why he lost control that day, but it didn't matter as much the feeling of Lex's face between his hands.

_**Blood**_

Clark hates how Lex complains about his broken arm with the same worry as his coffee growing cold; he doesn't understand why Lex doesn't notice his own body falling to pieces.

_**Language**_

Pete walks into the Talon to see Lex and Clark talking in the back booth; he turns around to go find Chloe because that's a friendship he can understand.

_**Flag**_

At times like this it's easily to remember Lex's lectures about conquerors marking their territory; as he watches Lex exchange pleasantries with professional models and gorgeous heiresses alike, Clark wonders how he should go about laying claim.

_**Steal**_

He looks down at the note and reads, 'You have my heart, so the last cookie is mine.'

_**Death**_

Lex's fingers bruise in the effort to dig anything red and blue out of the pile of kryptonite; he's never had to imagine his life without Clark, and he refuses to start now.

_**Away**_

The "Clark, I'm home," hasn't left his lips before Clark's embrace moves him to silence.

_**Frown**_

Batman calls for a team to take down LexCorp robots terrorizing downtown Metropolis when Superman declares he'll handle the situation himself; Bruce watches Clark once he's on Earth, battling Luthor with one eighth of his strength, and decides an intervention is in order.

_**Negligible**_

Lex has a scar on his upper-lip that's so inconsequential it can barely be seen, but Lex is always like that; if you look deep enough you're bound to discover something unexpected.

_**Here**_

The secrets, the lies, the fights; none of that mattered more than this and now, the persistent touch of Lex's lips and the soft skin beneath his fingers.

_**Challenge**_

Loving Lex wouldn't be easy, but Clark was ready to accomplish something that would take actual effort.

_**Examine**_

He watched from the hall while Lex brushed imaginary traces of meteor dust from Clark's already clean body, demanding that he wake up immediately and if he's pretending Lex was going to castrate him; when he heard choked sobs coming from the mouth of a Luthor, Jonathan felt the first wall of his resistance crumble.

_**Crisis**_

Clark splutters out an apology and soars away; Lex wonders what perfectly manageable disaster is more important than their anniversary this time.

_**White**_

Lex had seen a purity in Clark that he had been drawn to; twenty years later and that good and bad mentally doesn't feel as lovable anymore.

_**Slip**_

"Clark, you just fell from ten stories up and you don't even have a scratch."

_**Pretend**_

"You're tired Lex; you must be seeing things."

_**Destiny**_

Locked in an everlasting battle with only venom-soaked words and suspicious actions exchanged, Lex secretly mourns the fate he had been talking about.

_**Talk**_

Clark asks about work, and Lex inquires about Lana; they sit and laugh and bask in a meteor-mutant free moment.

_**Ghost**_

Looking down at stone and trying to see the woman framed on Lex's dresser, Clark wonders if Lex's mother would have liked him; Lex takes his hand with a nod of affirmation after changing like to love.

_**Punish**_

When Clark saw a picture of Lex with his old comical red hair, he only managed a few goodnatured jokes before Lex threatened to banish him to the couch.

_**Yell**_

Lex does find it theraputic to throw glass against the wall and rip paintings from their places, but nothing can make things right again like Clark coming back into his arms.

_**Broken**_

Her son's bowed head couldn't hide the tears dripping onto the unmoving hand he clutched while he prayed; Martha's mothering instinct obliterated all opposition at that moment.

_**Flower**_

Clark thought Lex was like a rose, beautiful but ready to hurt anyone who tried to touch him; good thing Clark was invulnerable.

_**Music**_

Terrible, screeching harpy voices blast through the speakers on the ride to Metropolis; Lex inwardly curses letting Clark control the radio.

_**Spirit**_

Lex has a hungry soul, always reaching and needing greater things; Clark is terrified of the day Smallville won't be good enough.

_**Mine**_

"It's my fault Lex, the meteors, everything."

_**Fulfilled**_

"All I know is that it's your fault I'm the happiest I've ever been."

_**Myriad**_

Each of Lex's girlfriends (and wives) had been scheming, manipulative liars; Clark would've hated them if they had the soul of Mother Teresa.

_**Hide**_

Once he recognized the reason for his pounding heart and sweaty palms, Clark figured this was a secret he wouldn't mind sharing with Lex.

_**Noose**_

Clark had given him back his life once, and now Lex knew he would be the one to take it away.

_**Sky**_

Clark's favorite dreams were the rare ones where he could fly, where he'd rush to the manor to take Lex in his arms among the clouds for a brief moment where they could be weightless and free.

_**Happy**_

"Is it that hard to be content with what you have, Lex?"

_**Light**_

"Is it that difficult for you to tell the truth?"

_**Bang**_

Lex twirled the glowing green bullet between his hands, pondering what the splitting sound of invulnerable skin will sound like.

_**Glass**_

When Clark asks why Lex has only one mirror in his house, he answers that he sees enough of his father already.

_**Forget**_

Lost in a haze of medication and halted time, he could barely remember his own name; all he knew was a pained face that had allowed them to take him away.

_**Shiny**_

Lex's eyes were glazed with that seemed to be fever, but Clark mentally chanted that Lex never got sick.

_**Hope**_

He never let himself form the thoughts, but Lex had always almost expected Clark to come barreling through those doors with a real smile at least one more time; when all he received where threats and bitter accusations, the part of him that wanted to believe shriveled and died.

_**Believe**_

The ticking of the clock seemed thunderous with it's jeers, but Clark had promised to be there, and Lex had faith in Clark.

_**Smile**_

He showed up forty minutes late, wearing the apologetic grin he only pulled out when guilt covered him like a second skin; Lex just stepped aside so Clark could come inside.

_**Contrast**_

"Is this how you think it works Clark, that you can condemn me for my secrets while you horde your own?"

_**Innocent**_

Lex wishes he understood why he spends his free time with the native rural teens Kansas offers; when Clark turns those overly adult eyes to meet his own, Lex thinks he may have a thesis.

_**Forever**_

Lying in bed with Clark's arm around his waist and his even breathing by his ear, Lex unashamedly begged the sun not to rise.

_**Peace**_

Lex received two Christmas gifts from Clark this year; one broken Justice League communicator and two plane tickets.

_**Road**_

When Clark slammed the door and ordered him to drive, Lex had no problem roaring the ignition to life and leaving their problems behind.

_**Scissors**_

Lex is so protected, wrapped in layers upon complicated layers; Clark wants to cut them away and find the man struggling to breathe inside.

_**Promise**_

Two gold rings, two sets of vows, two mouths meeting, and now no one can tell where one of them ends and the other begins.

_**War**_

When Clark demanded to know why LexCorp had suddenly started manufacturing weapons, Lex snidely replied that not everyone could get hit by a car and walk it off.

_**Drive**_

Clark loved the way Lex looked behind the wheel of one of his expensive cars; Clark loved the way he looked pressed against the interior of the pick-up even more.

_**Moon**_

Lex constantly talks about the wonders of space travel and the promise of traveling the galaxy; Clark can still see the expression on Lex's face when he promised to take him someday.

_**Shame**_

Lex hates the way looks from Clark's parents automatically fill him with self-loathing and embarrassment, and that's not something Clark's eager kisses can change.

_**Imagine**_

Whenever Lex's temper tells him that his father had been to visit, Clark takes perverse pleasure picturing how to blast off the man's head with heat vision; he's glad the thought still makes him feel guilty.

_**Curious**_

Lana knew there was something strange about how Clark and Lex sat so far apart as if to purposely keep from touching; she just had no idea how off her speculation was.

_**Defeat**_

It was hard to find distractions in faceless women and blinding lights, but it was easier to succumb to timid but caring touches and a person he actually wanted to wake up with the next morning.

_**South**_

Taking in the coarse sand and piercing rays of the sun, Lex decided he didn't like it as much as the other shore he had washed up on.

_**Try**_

Lex shot the next ball into the pocket with ease, not even needing to concentrate to dominate Clark at pool; when he turned around to see the disgruntled look on Clark's face, Lex began to think there was another reason they were playing.

_**Value**_

Clark's homemade birthday card stood on Lex's desk while seven hundred and forty-two unopened others lined the trash.

_**Yearn**_

Lex's personal plane took off expertly while Clark watched from inside; staring down at his phone, he knew that it wouldn't be enough for a day, let alone three weeks.

_**Sun**_

Clark always seemed to think that it was the powers from a glowing yellow orb that made him special; Lex knew it was his otherworldly compassion and dedication to what he thought was right.

_**Abash**_

Lex's poker face was the scourge of every businessman across the globe, a cool mask with features that barely changed between bored, aplomb, and contempt; imagine the faces of sixteen millionaires when a simple seventeen year old burst through the doors and suddenly that legendary face slips into a smile.

_**Save**_

Clark watched Lex slip a ring on yet another delicate finger, his eyes burning because he knew this wasn't a disaster Lex wanted to be rescued from.


End file.
